Rise of the New God Session 10
is channeled through the Shadow Engine.]]The tenth session of Rise of the New God Preceded by Rise of the New God Session 9 As Pronefest leaves the Boneyard Bridge, they enter a new passageway with narrow walls that are dripping black fluid. The party explores this new space and finds many tombs that are lidless. Around and inside them, they find find old dusty gems and bone fragments strewn about. K'Artanyik examines the gems, but finds they are fake and quite worthless. Ildirin tries to perceive any magic flowing about the room that might hurt the party, but senses nothing. Ki-amar opens one of the two doors leading out of the room and finds a large chamber with a purple sepulcher filling most of the space. He also sees the bodies of six shadar-kai, searching the bodies he finds symbols to The Raven Queen and a journal. He can see by skimming it that it contains a great deal about the history of Acererak and the Tomb of Horrors itself. Krusk bites through the other door leading out of the previous room, but finds nothing but a stone wall. Ki-amar, after tempting fate many times by often voicing the Vowel of Derangement, attracts the attention of the twisted god Ktul and is subjected to eldritch energies. He is able to resist the effects, but starts to muse on intentionally invoking the Vowel. The other members of Pronefest are disturbed by this apparent slide into madness and give Ki-amar warnings and a wider berth. Shortly after this Ildirin finds a concealed passageway in one of the alcoves of the tomb room. Pronefest travels through this new passage. The party finds itself in a chamber facing four large devourer faces. Ki-amar tries to discern any dangerous magic waiting to trigger around the devourers, but feels no magic of any kind. Heedless of the danger he opens a door in one of the mouths and hops down into darkness. The rest of the party proceeds with more caution and encounter no danger. They find themselves in a passageway leading to a door. The door contains two keyholes with symbols for the keys that match those Pronefest carries. The party tries to anticipate a trap by using the keys in the opposite keyholes indicated, but are zapped for their trouble. They insert the keys as indicated and the keys disintigrate as the door opens. Pronefest finds itself facing a large machine suspended in the air with many iron rods connected by cables and adorned with many gems. There is a large column of energy firing from the machine into a portal on the floor below it and the four original members of Pronefest think that it appears similar to the machine they encountered in the Garden of Graves. The characters use their various skills to determine that the energy is feeding Acererak's phylactery. They resolve to try and disable the device, starting by trying to remove the gems. They are successful, but a construct of Acererak rises to attack them. It annoys the party by flying above their reach, but Krusk is able to grab and bring the skull down to ground level. As the party uses their skills to disrupt the Shadow Engine, Ki-amar is seized by madness and voices the Vowel of Derangement which causes him to bleed internally. In his madness, he enters the portal and is rewarded by having his soul trapped in a soul gem and his body destroyed. The rest of the party finishes destroying the construct, with Ildirin landing the finishing blow. Krusk attempts to use his religious knowledge to disrupt the machine and succeeds, in spite of terrible advice from the rest of the party. The machine falls apart and they retrieve numerous valuable gems. Ildirin changes the portal's destination to Senaliesse and they step through. Emerging in the city they take a moment to discuss their companions fate. They agree that though he brought useful powers to the group, they were glad to be free from the danger his escalating madness and use of the Vowel of Derangement was surely going to bring upon them all. They attempt to interrogate the eladrin captive in their handy haversack, but after he is restrained after attempting to flee, he vows to divulge no information. He is rescued by The Witch of Dreams who comes upon their interrogation in progress and claims him as one of her servants. They also find that Loray Lorhalien has been murdered in their absence and they first vow to find his killer before completing any other missions. Pronefest also feels that they should try and find another adventurer to fill the gap that Ki-amar left in his rash decision to enter the portal. They leave a posting at one of the inns and eventually find an interested bard. He introduces himself as Mindartis and Pronefest feels that his skills would work well with their group. The memories of Ki-amar's descent into madness still on their minds, they resolve to keep a close eye on the newcomer. Followed by Rise of the New God Session 11 Recording *Part 1-Pronefest finally finds its way to the Wizard of the Tomb of Horrors and their wishes come true! Krusk gets a heart, Ildirin gets his courage, and they all get to go home. Unfortunately, Ki-amar dies before getting a brain, succumbing to terminal stupidity. Upon their return to Senaliesse, the political intrigue continues.